Magazine device and method for rapidly lowering sails



Jan. 2, 1968 R. c. DUNCAN 3,3

MAGAZINE DEVICE AND METHO D FOR RAPIDLY LOWERING SAILS Filed Oct. 18, 1965 INVENTOR 6 RlCl dARD c. DUNGAN ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,361,105 MAGAZINE DEVICE AND METHOD FGR RAPIDLY LOWERING SAILS Richard C. Dungan, R0. Box 127, Palmetto, Fla. 33561 Filed Oct. 18, 1965, Ser. No. 497,001 Claims. (Cl. 114-102) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A magazine for holding a replacement sail at the foot of a standard rigging stay, said magazine comprising a T-shaped track for receiving the snap hooks attached to the sail in such manner that they may be slid off the magazine onto the stay, and the method of using said magazine according to which a replacement sail is fastened to said magazine, a sail already carried by said stay is lowered while said replacement sail remains attached to said magazine, and said replacement sail is raised while the other sail remains attached in hanked position upon the foot of the stay.

My invention relates to an improvement in sail boat rigging, more particularly to a magazine device for expediting the changing of sails of the fore and aft type, such as the jibs and stay sails which are widely used for both pleasure and working craft on coastal and inland waters in many countries of the world.

Such sails are commonly fitted with spring closed hanks, which are hook-shaped shackles spaced along the luff or leading edge of the sail in set position and which engage around the stay or rigging line on which they are spread to fasten the sail securely from tack to head, as described in US. Pat. No. 2,925,798, dated Feb. 23, 1960. These fasteners, termed snap hooks, can slide along the rigging line from a sail loaded magazine secured to the rigging line near its lower end up to their respective positions to hold the sail spread as the head of the sail is raised by its halliard in hoisting, as is well known.

For stowing the sail as it is lowered, the snap hooks may slide onto a short length of cable at its tack end forming a magazine, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,308, dated Oct. 31, 1961, but this requires special construction and mounting of the stay at its lower or foot end to attach it securely to the deck of the boat. Otherwise it is necessary to open up all of the snap books after the sail is lowered, a time consuming and troublesome task, before another sail can be set in its place.

The rapidity with which the sails may be exchanged in accordance with my invention enables the boat to maintain a constant heading when a sail change is made necessary by a change in wind conditions; also when going from one tack to another a new sail may be set in place and drawing during the time it takes the boat to come about.

No existing magazine device is known to me for replacing a stay supported sail by another without removing the sail being replaced from the stay before hoisting the new sail to its place; and an important advantage of my invention is that no modification or alteration of the standing rigging as presently constructed is required to enable the sail being replaced to be removed from its lowered hanked position on the stay, or to be otherwise prevented from interfering with its immediate replacement by hoisting the new sail directly from its magazine. This is particularly important in large sailing vessels of the ocean racing classes as now constructed.

Another advantage of my invention is the saving in man power made possible by loading magazines severally with the sails required for all expected sailing conditions in advance of their need and laying them out on deck in readiness for immediate hoisting as needed, thereby dispensing with this magazine loading operation during a sail change when crewmen were most busy.

Further objects and advantages of my invention appear in the following description of a preferred form of magazine illustrated in the acompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters represent like parts in the several views; and what constitutes the invention is more definitely stated in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the empty magazine as applied to the lower end of a stay or other rigging line of a sailing vessel;

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are cross-sectional views of the same, looking in the direction of the arrows 2-2, 33 and 44l, respectively, in FIG. 1, drawn to a larger scale;

FIG. 5 is a part cross-section on the line '55 in FIG. 1, and part plan of the lower end of the magazine;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the upper end of the magazine as seen from the right in FIG. 1; and

BIG. 7 is a side view of a spring actuated snap hook of common form as applied to the luff of a sail shown in place upon the magazine, the latter and the lufi of the sail being shown in cross-section.

Referring to FIG. 1, the lower end of the rigging stay 11 is permanently secured to a fastening 12 on the deck 14 of the vessel by means of a turn-buckle *13 or other well known coupling device. The upper end of the stay 11 may be supported by a suitable fitting at the mast head, not shown, as is customary in the sailing world. This stay 11 is normally stretched tight, being part of the standing rigging.

The magazine comprises a bar 15 which is formed with side flanges 16 to provide a track for receiving the snap hooks 17 (see FIG. 7) which are secured to the leading edge 18, or luff, of the sail by means of lashings 1-9 passing through the eyelets 20, which are suitably spaced along the selvage of the luff from tack to head as is well known.

This magazine track is long enough to hold all the snap hooks with which the sails to be stowed and raised are provided, thereby enabling such sails to be furled for convenience in handling with their luff edges in accordion pleats firmly held in place on the magazine, a stop 21 being provided at the end of the track near the lower end of the bar to support the furled sail in place on the magazine during transportation and while being raised onto the stay 11.

The lower end of the bar 15 extends beyond the track stop 21 laterally a suflicient distance from the magazine to clear the folds of the furled sail and the extremity of the leg 22 so formed is provided with a swivel snap shackle 23 for embracing the stay 11 just above or below the turnbuckle 13 at its foot, a stop 24 being fitted on the stay above the point where it may be embraced by the snap shackle 23 for preventing a lowered sail from fouling the magazine leg 22.

The upper end of the magazine bar 15 is bifurcated to straddle the stay 11 at a small angle thereto by means of a lengthwise groove 25, as seen in FIG. 1, the bottom 26 being round and approximating the diameter of the stay for which the magazine is intended for use, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 6. The guide strips 27 are advantageously brazed, welded or otherwise allixed to the outer side walls of the bar 15 which are recessed to receive them, thereby aiding in aligning the grooved end of the bar 15 with the stay 11 in assembling the magazine and furled sail carried thereby when a fresh sail is to be set. These guide strips are preferably made of flexible spring metal and may be flared outwards slightly at their 3 upper outer corners 28 to ease the entry of the stay 11 between their tips in the use of the device.

For securing the magazine to the stay 11 during the raising of the sail the bar 15 is provided near its upper end with a latch (see FIGS. 1, 4 and 6) which is rotatably mounted on a thimble or stud 31 secured to the side of the bar by any suitable means, such as a bolt 32 extending through the bar and provided with a lock washer and nut 33 at its threaded end, which lies in a recess formed in the track side of the bar to enable the snap hooks to slide past it freely as the sail leaves the magazine.

The spring latch 30 has an arm 34 provided with a notch 35 which projects laterally to hook over the stay 11 when the latch is turned into holding position after the stay is seated in the groove 25. As shown in FIG. 1, the latch 30 is only partly turned into locking position, the arm and notch being clear of the stay 11, ready to clamp over the stay and hold it securely in place in the groove. A handle 36 may be furnished for manipulating the latch.

In using the magazine for changing sails, the sail to be substituted is preloaded by opening the snap hooks one by one, starting with those adjacent to the tack of the sail, and engaging them over the lateral flanges 16 of the bar 15 from tack to head with the sail laid out on the deck abaft the foot of the stay 11, in furled condition, prior to lowering the sail to be replaced by paying out its halliard until the head of the sail is below the locking point where the latch 30 near the upper end of the bar 15 of the loaded magazine will engage the stay 11 when the magazine is in loading position. The swivel shackle 23 at the end of the lower leg 22 of the loaded magazine is snapped around the stay 11 between the turnbuckle 13 and the stop 24, and the grooved upper end of the magazine bar 15 is raised to engage the stay 11 and then is locked in place by turning the latch 39 until the notch 35 of the arm 34 snaps over the stay above the lowered sail. The lower end of the halliard is attached to the head of .the sail carried by the magazine and hauled up to pull the sail and its attached snap hooks along the track 16 and onto the stay 11 until the sail is completely spread on the stay, the tack having previously been made secure to a fitting on the deck adjacent to the foot of the stay by a suitable shackle.

The entire operation takes only a few seconds longer than the time required for lowering and hoisting the heads of the two sails, as the replaced sail need not be removed from the lower end of the stay until after the head of the new sail has started up the stay; and it can be left there until a convenient time to remove it.

From actual use under various sailing conditions I have found that about two minutes can usually be saved by the use of my magazine in smooth Weather and as much as five minutes or more in rough weather when it is difiicult to maintain a footing at the bow of the vessel. Thus the invention has an important advantage in reducing a danger hazard to the crew as well as in saving time frequently lost in changing sails during a race.

The invention is not restricted to the constructional details illustrated as these may be chosen from well known marine devices in common use, but what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is as follows:

1. A sail holding and setting device for vessels having standing rigging including a stay for supporting a fixed edge of a sail provided with spring snap hooks in set position, said device comprising a holder and guide bar of a length sufficient to span said fixed edge in lowered position of the sail, said bar having a holding portion provided with track means for engaging said snap hooks and holding them open to permit passage along said track from said bar to said stay, one end of said bar having guide means for said snap hooks in alignment with the adjacent end of said track to engage said stay and the other end of said bar having an extension provided with means for removably engaging a fixed support to offset the magazine from the stay.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the end extension extends laterally from the bar to offset it from the stay.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein one end of the bar is slotted lengthwise of its axis to receive the stay.

4. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the bar is of T shape in cross section having flanges at one end to straddle the stay and guide the snap hooks over the stay.

5. A sail holding and setting device for vessels having sails provided with snap hooks spaced along a luff selvage, said device comprising a bar forming a track for receiving the snap hooks and sail supported thereby and provided with securing means at one end offset laterally from said bar permitting free rotation of the bar about an axis at a small angle to the principal axis thereof, means at said end preventing removal of said snap hooks along the bar, and a lengthwise bifurcated extension at the other end forming a groove adapted to straddle a stay at a small angle therewith suitable for guiding said snap hooks onto said stay, and means mounted on said bar for removably securing said bar to said stay with the bifurcated extension straddling the latter at said small angle therewith to permit free passage of said snap hooks and sail from said bar to said stay.

6. A device as set forth in claim 5 having the end of its track remote from said bifurcated extension offset laterally from the stay by means of a connecting leg provided with a snap shackle at its end for engaging the stay.

7. A magazine for holding sails of vessels having rigging with stays, said magazine comprising an elongated T shaped body providing a track for receiving and holding open snap hooks spaced along the selvage of a sail and characterized by means for extending said track at one end to engage a stay above its foot and means for extending said body at the other end of said track laterally to engage holding means adjacent to the foot of the stay.

8. A magazine as set forth in claim 7 wherein the body is provided with spring guide means adjacent the extended end of said track to engage the stay. 7

9. A magazine as set forth in claim 7 wherein the extension means at the ends of said body provided pivots permitting swinging of the magazine around the axis of the stay.

10. The method of replacing a lowered sail on a rigging stay with another sail initially carried by a mag azine which method comprises the step of sliding said other sail from said magazine onto said rigging stay while said lowered sail is still attached in hanked position upon the foot of the stay.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,925,798 2/1960 Colgate ll4102 3,006,308 10/1961 Enke 114-102 3,251,329 5/1966 Smith 114-102 MILTON BUCHLER, Primary Examiner.

T. M. BLIX, Assistqnt Examiner. 

